I've got a WD 500gb passport that uses a password to access it. The other day after entering the password it came up with an error message. I went to the western digital website to down load the drivers etc as I thought this maybe the problem. After doing this the drive is no longer even recognised!! I've tried different computers and usb leads but get nothing. When I pull it in my laptop it makes a noise to say that something is connected but thats it. Any ideas anyone? This is an important drive as it contains all my pics and important info ie bank login details.
Oh, f***............ And I just bought a WD 1TB external hard drive to back up everything in my pc.................. I don't know what to do to retrieve your info, but i will ask my techie kids, also for myself, in case I encounter the same hurdle. I will report a soon as I can.
When you say it needs a password do you mean that the drive is using encryption software? You need to find out if there is a hardware problem the tool to download is the one on this page http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&sid=3&lang=en Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows filename is WinDlg_124.zip. Unzip the file and run setup then run the diagnostic utility it will tell you what the SMART status of the drive is, i.e. bad sectors or the likes. Unfortunately many things can go wrong with a drive, physical damage like bad sectors, problems with the bearings that the platters spin on, problems with the read heads, sometimes simply problems with the drive controller board. The only one that you can get fixed really is problems with the drive controller, this is the circuit board on the back of the drive, if that has failed then your data is probably still there and the platters are probably undamaged. Also unfortunately recovery of data from broken drive is usually very very expensive, is is possible but it is not easy, it is also much harder if the drive is encrypted as even small damage can make it nigh on impossible for the encryption to be undone. I have had SMART error reporting on my Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB in the last few days, first symptom was a few damaged photo's a month or two ago, pretty sure this was the result of dropping the drive in it's external USB casing. Anyway I bought a replacement 750 GB Hitachi and transferred everything off then used the Western Digital Diagnostics to take a look at the problem and sure enough it was physical damage, a large number of bad sectors. Western Digital drives are very good generally, WD and Hitachi are the two brands I really trust, Hitachi Drives used to be IBM, IBM sold their drive business to Hitachi a good few years ago now, problem is with these incredibly high data density drives these days it takes very little to damage them and if you do have a bump or knock then you are looking at a lot of data being lost. The only safe thing is to have multiple backups and in my case I had all of my photos backed up elsewhere but I still needed the extra new drive to make sure I had enough copies to be safe. I reformatted my damaged drive but created a smaller partition and have now copied all my stuff back on to it, but I will never trust that one again, it's just a low quality spare archive now. Sorry for the bad news Stu
Thanks for the info chaps. I'm not sure if it has encryption software but when you plug it in the virtual Cd drive would appear and ask for the password. This was just to get access to the files etc on the drive. I'll have a look at that link in a bit and report back. I've managed to contact a local computer repair shop in my town and he mentioned it could be the drive controller but we'll see when I get back from offshore. I hope its a simple fix or atleast my stuff is retrievable, as always its basically got my life on it. i hate being so dependant on these things. Anyway its a lesson learned and from now on I'll just buy 2 drives and use one as a back up. I've also got a standard 1Tb drive by samsung so I might look at them for my next one.
I missed one other possibility Stu it might be the USB controller on the drive caddy that has died, might not be the drive at all. Sadly it is not the easiest thing to test because I just checked and your drive uses hardware encryption for the password protection and I have a feeling that the hardware support for this is in the USB-Sata interface in the caddy. If it were not for that I would have suggested getting cheap USB-Sata caddy and popping the drive out and trying it in the new cadddy. Might still be worth a test that, as if the drive is spinning up and appears in the list in the storage section of the "Computer Management" program then it would almost definitely be the drive caddy at fault.
Thanks for the info again. I tried looking in the storage section of the "Computer Management" program last night (have no idea what i'm doing just following stuff I found on the net!) but the drive wasn't showing. The little power light comes on, on the drive and I can feel it spinning inside. Its not makes any strange noises or vibration either.
Stu can you try it in a different computer, I used to have a Buffalo ministation 320GB external drive with this kind of hardware password encryption and it had problems with the software occasionally. Every now and then the dialog box that allows you to enter the password would not appear, the program that managed the drive encryption and password was running but the dialog box was opening on the wrong "Window Station" windows supports multiple desktops in a single login session and occasionally programs can appear on the wrong one, windows is supposed to prompt you that there is a problem when this happens but it does not always do it. Are you running Windows 7 or Windows Vista? Unfortunately I don't know the name of the western digital process that manages this dialog box otherwise you could try to find it in task manager. Another even simpler issue can sometimes be that the dialog box for the password does appear but it's coordinates are off screen either negative coordinates or some really big x or y number that places the window off screen. This can be tested for because if you wait a little while after plugging the drive in the dialog box should appear, it is still there even if you cannot see it and you can type your password and press enter, this usually works if this is the problem. My reason for thinking that it might be a software problem is that the drive is responding, spinning up and not making click of death noises. Other option is to try the drive in another computer and install the software for the drive on this other computer first.
Blimey you certainly know alot about this stuff mate! Right, tried the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic program but unfortunatly it didn't find my external drive. I tried it in all the usb ports on the computer. I then tried my other external drive just to check the program and it found it and ran a test ok. I've also tried the drive in various other computers I have access to but its the same problem. I thought about installing the software on another computer but unfortunatley i'm at work and alot of these computers have admin settings on them so I can't install any software etc. Thanks again for your help in this. I hope its a software problem to as I imagine that this would be easier to sort out? Oh yes its windows 7 I'm running.
Software Engineer Stu Yes a software problem would be much easier to fix, I would hope that would be the problem too, but the fact that Data lifeguard did not see the drive is not to encouraging.
Software engineer eh that explains it! I've just had a thought. This Wd drive creates a virtual Cd drive doesn't it. Well a couple of days ago I installed a programme called "power ISO" to install another programme that required me to make a copy of a CD. (My laptop doesn't have a disk drive as its only a 13inch model). Could it be that the virtual CD power iso programme has wiped the WD virtual CD programme of my computer? Clutching at straws here!
It is certainly possible that the driver for "power Iso" has upset or replaced one or more driver components of the WD suite, could be worth trying an un-install of the "power Iso" program. For virtual drive handling I would strongly recommend "Virtual Clone Drive" by Elaborate Bytes http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html as a great wee free product.
Uninstalled the power iso program, thanks for the tip on the other one by the way. I've just tried to install the WD firmware updater and got the message "wd firmware updater is unable to determine the appropirate firmware for your drive" Also tried the smartware software updater and got the message "no software update is required (version 1.5.1.6 is current) I'm going to try to download the disk image for windows folder (PP4R2 1.4.1.2) and the the SES driver setup (x64). I'll have downloaded everything then. So i'll see if that works, otherwise I'll be taking a screwdriver to the blood thing to see if anything has come loose inside. Always check its plugged in first!!!
Have you thought about using 'portable applications' ? Nearly all my application stuff is portable. Not too difficult using VMware and Thinapp. Highly recommended.
Be very careful Stu about doing firmware updates you can completely screw up a working device that way. Smartware I take it is the encryption software for the drive, I will look that up. (ah yes it is the encryption software). It is looking more likely that it is a problem with either the drive controller or USB controller in the external drive caddy. It might be a dislodged cable so opening it up is a possibility although that will void any warranty you have. Trouble is if WD will either fix it or replace it, they have no responsibility for you data and returning the drive to them will not help you that way, if it is the controller on the drive (the circuit board on the back of the drive) a good repair shop might be able to transplant a new one from a working drive. I know it's a painful question but have you got your data backed up anywhere?
In what context Peter? As far as I can see Thinapp is an enterprise level product most app virtualization products are seriously expensive VMware's Thinapp page quotes over 6000 dollars for a 50 licence package. As a developer I have long been interested in app virtualization it is a great way to protect your intellectual property as well, as these things are not easy to decompile, Spoon server is another one http://spoon.net/server/ but it also costs a fortune.
I thought my external HD was Dead, but I read in a techi forum that it might be in a power saving mode. Stu, I know this might sound a bit simple, but give it a go, switch it on with out pluging the usb in. It worked fine with mine. Jim
Thanks again everyone for suggestions in my ongoing saga. Peter thanks for the suggestion of those other programmes, yet more stiff i've never heard of!!! Really must take more of an interest in this sort of thing! I've just had our electro tec onboard have a look at the drive and he is of the opinion that as you have said OSS that its looking like the drive controller or USB controller in the external drive caddy, or words to that effect. I don't think I'm interested in sending it to WD now as I've had it a good 3 years or so I think so I'm well out of warrenty period, so if my electro tec mate onboard can't find anything I'll just have to take it to my local computer repair place when I get home. Jim unfortunately this particular drive doesn't have an external power supply requirment so it just turns on when you plug the USB into the computer. Thanks for the suggestion though
No Stu, what I meant was internal cables in the caddy, SATA connections are usually in a fixed position but in older larger drive the connection to the USB controller was was internally by a flexible cable with a lot of pin outs. Even in the fixed SATA connector it is possible that the power is still connected but the other connections are dislodged, that was why I agree with you that opening up the case for the caddy could be a good idea, it might just let you reseat something, I am clutching at straws but it might be worth a try on a drive that is out of warranty.
Ah ok. I've opened it up and to be honest to my untrained eye everything looks oks. What I take to be the actual hard drive is connected to a curcuit board but its all held in place by a silver sticker thats wrapped round it thats a bugger to try to unpeel. So I'm not going to mess about too much to be honest incase I make it worse!! There are two groups of metal pins at one end of the drive though, I'm assumimng these allow the drive to be directly accessed?
I'll try and get you some photos of a SATA connection late tomorrow Stu, I am not at home just now, pins sounds like an older ATA IDE connector but I might be misunderstanding. But again it sounds like a well constructed device so I think possibly your on board techy is right.
